This marked Julian Louie’s debut at New York Fashion Week, but the creative director of Aubero said he wasn’t the least bit nervous. “I actually feel quite calm,” he said. “I’m really on the men’s calendar so the collection was mostly finished in June. So while there’s been show prep, in terms of the actual wrangling of samples, that mostly happened in the early part of the summer.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Louie is a veteran who studied architecture at Cooper Union before starting his fashion career under Francisco Costa at Calvin Klein Collection. He founded Aubero in 2022 and the collection is now sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Maxfield, Barneys New York and other trend-setting boutiques globally. He’s a finalist for this year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award and is also nominated for the CFDA’s Emerging Designer of the Year award.
What these retailers and organizations have come to appreciate is Louie’s skill at creating walking works of art from repurposed antique textiles, all inspired by his roots growing up in Santa Cruz, Calif. “I hesitate to call it an inspiration, because it feels more foundational and emotional to me,” he said before the show. “Santa Cruz is a very specific place: it’s a surf town, a university town, it was very important culturally in the ‘60s and ‘70s in the hippie world. There’s this kind of cultural heritage of character in Santa Cruz, and that really informs the attitude.”
What that translated into were models wearing what looked like long skirts but were intended to reference sarong towels that a surfer would wrap around himself after riding some early-morning waves.
While interesting and provocative, the most striking pieces in the collection were those created from vintage textiles that Louie repurposed into elaborate coats, pants and jackets. “The brand started working exclusively with antique textiles that were falling apart — things that were too fragile to be handled — and developing ideas around the preservation of materials.”
Louie also keeps every scrap that results from the creation of his collection and reworks them into his one-of-a-kind pieces such as the leftover taffeta that he used in a patchwork jacket.
All in all, Louie’s unique expression of fashion — that he presented in a lighting studio accompanied by a drum circle — was a welcome addition to this year’s calendar.